CFA WOD 7/14/11

This WOD is posted here.

Level One:
Skill Practice:
Frank Squats @32×3
Deadlift Progressions

WOD
A1. Lift off x5×3  rest 1:00  (35 lb, 65 lb)
A2. Unweighted Step-ups x5/leg x3  rest 1:00
B1. Front Squats x3×3 @32×3  rest 1:00  (35 lb)
B2. Chin-ups x1-3×3  rest 1:00
C1. Back Squats x5×3  rest 1:00 (40 lb)
C2. Chin-ups x1-3×3  rest 1:00

Cash-out: Side Plank test

The Good:

• Finally had a training partner.  Ty was a good training partner.  He was literally a great support on the buddy chin-ups.  He also had good energy.  He seemed really chill.
• Enjoyed today's strength workout.  I like working on the mechanics of lifts.  Also liked that we added some weights to the bar
• Nick was there so he was able to check out my shoulder again.  The day before I met with Nick for an Airosti PT session

The Awesome:

• Passed the side plank test on my right side by holding for 90 sec.   Also, held left side to 1:05 (that was the previous day's right side time)
• Walker told me about a blog called The Clothes Make the Girl and it is awesome.

Homework:

• Need to work on my push-up form:  I have no idea why that first inch is so hard.  I think next time I practice, I will visualize the first push as a giant leap from the floor caused by my hands.
• Practice side planks.  I'm so close to 90 sec both sides.  

I want to look this serene during my side plank tests.

 picture source

Why do Crossfit?

There's a really great series of videos on the Crossfit games website called All Over the Map.  They;re all interviews of athletes going to the games. 

Blaire Morrison's response to Why do you do Crossfit? really struck a chord with me.  His response was so distinct, earnest, and beautiful that I transcribed it:


I remember extremely vividly the day I got off the train in Leiden with all my bags and I was like I don't speak Dutch, this is weird, like where am I going.  And like that memory sticks out like a thousand other memories that I have from that experience because .. not because it was a perfect memory but because it was so different from anything else I'd ever done or have done since, you know? and I want a long life of those kinds of memories, things that are distinct and unique and you know those types of things, they create growth.  You know if everything is the same or similar they blend together and it's all becomes one big cloudy past, you know.  And that's not what I want.

Blaire Morrison ponders his response.

CFA WOD 7/12/11

This Level 1 workout is posted here.

Level One:
Skill Practice
5 Rounds
Ring Static Hold :30 (Bottom, Top, Leaning)
3 Wall Balls

WOD
4 Rounds
3:00 on/ 1:00 off
10 Wall Balls
10 Tic Tacs
200 M Run
*Completed Rounds recorded

Completed Rounds: 1 2/3 rounds per round.  6 2/3 rounds total.  During each round, I was able to do 20 Wall Balls, 20 Tic Tacs, and one 200 M Run.

Plusses:

• Consistent Reps in the WOD:  I was able to complete the same amount of work during each round of the WOD.  Whoo-hoo! No drop-off in reps.  I kept telling myself: I PAY FOR THIS.  This made my effort fell less like torture and more like an investment
• Shoulders starting to feel stronger:  Despite my sore left shoulder, I feel like my shoulders are getting stronger and broader.  Neat.
• Tic Tacs: I like these.  Great exercise for the obliques.  When I needed to, I was able to do these superfast in order to help my rep count.

Deltas:

• Forgot my wrist band: This made me feel uncomfortable because I had nothing to wipe the sweat out of my eyes.
• Wall Balls: Need to work on bring ball down to chest and using legs to explode up and drive the ball up to the line.  Accuracy was OK but can get better.
• Ring Static Hold:  These felt alright.  This will get much better when I get better at maintaining a tight front follow position.  These also felt more stable when I used my upper back to help push and hold rings close to the body.

Aha's:

• Finally wrote down the warmup workout in my log because it's such a great plyo workout.  Later I'd like to memorize it so I have a good warmup routine for playing Ultimate on Thursdays.

CFA WOD 7/11/11

A relevant tangent, first.  Yesterday's USA vs Brazil World Cup soccer Quarterfinal match was epic!  The refs made 3 critical miscalls.  They unfairly penalized Hope Solo (US goal keeper) for moving during a free kick and they failed to call off-sides on a Brazilian player that kicked an assist that lead to Brazil's 2nd goal.  Finally, a US player was red-carded in the 2nd half so the US had to play out the rest of the half and overtime with one less player.  Despite that, the US prevailed thanks to a last minute header goal in overtime and a penalty kick save by Hope Solo.

Last minute header goal by Abby Wambach

Hope Solo saves the tiebreaking penalty kick.

Team celebrates Hope's save.

This team never gave up.  So inspiring!  Also, Hope Solo was HUGE even though she was playing with a sore shoulder.  After watching this, I signed up for 3 Crossfit workouts this week even though I have a sore left shoulder because I was inspired by Solo's example.  Plus, I know how to take care of myself by modifying my movements and communicating with my coaches so I decided to go for it.  This Wednesday I have an appointment with an Airosti Sports Medicine doctor to work on my shoulder.  I also wore all black today to match the US team because I'm a dork like that.

The Level 1 Workout is posted here.

Skill Practice

1.  3 rounds un-timed:

• 5 push-ups: 2 rounds regular, 1 rounds on knees
• 8 Frank/air squats @ 32x3:  2 rounds Frank squats, 1 round air squats
• 10 sec chin-up hold
•  8 Waiters bends

2.  Rowing Progressions

WOD 3 Rounds:

• 350 M Row
• 12 Walking Lunges

Time: 9:07 min (other Level 1 times: Pat & Aaron 13:10, The Ladies 18:34, The Gents 16:18)  This means I'm faster than the slowest members in each of these teams since I completed the workout solo.  I feel less bad about my time when I see the other times.  I was disappointed in my rowing because I was not rowing at sprint space even though the distance was only 350 m.  My stroke rating was around 30 strokes/min and my splits were between 2:10 and 2:20 min/500 m.  I wasn't able to push myself up to sprint pace which amounts to a stroke rating of 40 strokes/min and splits between 1:55 and 2:05 min/500 m.

Body Notes:  First couple lunges were really tough in each round.  My forearms were burned out by the end of this WOD.

A-HA's

• Two new effective butt stretches: (1) Lying on back, pull knee to chest and then use glutes to lift hips.  (2) Sit into an exaggerated squat position.  Rest weight on heels.  Grip under toes and lift but while keeping chest big and up. 
• Aerobic Friday's:  Wes Kimball programs the Friday open workouts to build aerobic capacity.  Explains why last Friday's workout was so long and intense.
• I'm stronger than I think:  I felt so weak last Thursday because I couldn't hold a 90 sec side plank on each side.  I can do around a minute each side and Walker told me that was pretty strong for someone just starting Crossfit.
• Rowing tip:  Walker corrected my slide to make it smoother.  I was holding on to too much momentum at the catch and she got me to push more of that momentum into the slide up.

Plusses:

• Pushups are improving:  I was able to do some regular push-ups.  When I described my progress here, I accidentally said something dirty: "I'm OK with the ride down.  It's just those first two inches up that give me trouble".
• Chin-ups hold improvement:  It helped to keep the hands shoulder width apart and then squeeze my shoulder blades to hold myself up there.
• Rowing 1st set:  Killed the first round of the 350 m row.  I think my average 500 m split was 2:07.  Progress.

Deltas:

• More positive self-talk:  Need to stop negating my skills and abilities by focusing on areas where I fall short compared to other athletes.  I can improve my self-talk by staying present and focusing on pushing my body within the moment and appreciating whatever effort comes out.  I'm already in better shape now than I thought I'd be - YIPPEE!! - so it's OK to just have FUN, rip it out, and see what happens.
• Need to build strength and speed to bring 350 m rows up to sprint pace.  See comments by the time.

Coming Out of Retirement

Last night, I signed up for the Austin Ultimate Summer League.  My first game is this Thursday from 7 pm - 10 pm.  It's been over 4 years since I last played.  I'm not even sure if my cleats are still good.  I need to find them and test them out on grass before Thursday night.

I was awfully tempted when Tina W. put up the last chance announcement on Facebook.  I miss playing and I'm starting to feel athletic again now that I've been doing Crossfit for about 4 weeks.

Two things tipped me over from temptation to sign up:

1.  Tina telling me to SIGN UP!!! on my wall.

2.  Really cool swag (see below)

Sweat jersey!!

Neat disc design

CFA WOD 7/8/11

Skill Practice (This WOD is posted here.)
Double Under Progression

Aerobic Training  “The Double Russian”

5 Rounds
20 Russian KB Swings (24K, 16K) - I used a 12K kettle bell.
20 Double Unders (or singles x2) - I did singles.
20 Russian Step-ups (total)
20 Double Unders - I did singles.

Time: 15:45? 15:54?  It's all a haze.  Hopefully they'll post it on the blog because I don't fully remember the time.  I just know it was between 15 and 16 minutes.  Next time I'll write my time down.

The Good (good things + things I'm good at)

• Comraderie: First class with other people!  Yay!  It was nice to feed off other athletes' energy and movements.  Also, Jenny was very encouraging and helpful.  One day I will tell her that the work ethic she displayed in the gym while I was doing the On Ramp course is one reason why I was drawn to CFA. 
• Double under drills: neat and simple and they gave me some ideas on what I can practice to eventually develop this skill
• Jump rope singles: Yay! I still remember how to jump rope.  These felt great during the workout.  It was nice to do at least one thing during the workout that put me in touch with my current fitness strengths (rhythm and aerobic capacity).
• Russian Step-Up: Like hiza geri with a bench! Genius!  I motivated my body to generate power on this movement by imagining that I was beheading zombies with my knees. 

The Bad (things I'm bad at "for now" + helpful next steps)

• Double unders: I don't know how to do these yet.  From what I observed, it looks like a combination of wrist strength & floppiness + rhythm.  Practicing these will help me to regain the wrist strength I had when I was playing Ultimate Frisbee with Melee.  I bought myself a speed jump rope so I can practice at home.  This may be one of the first advanced skills I develop because I like rhythm movements and I have some wrist strength from doing uraken punches in karate.
  
• Kettle Bells: Wow, the 16K kettle bell was so heavy that I nearly head butted the rack while I attempted to pick it up.  Good thing, Jenny pointed out the 12K kettle bells.  Eventually, I will become stronger and the 16K kettle bell won't be such a little beast.  

The Ugly

• Dangerous peeking: This morning was the first time I read the work-out on the CFA website before heading to my session.  I got pre-workout jitters and had to fight back the urge to cancel my session.  I think I will continue to check the workouts just to make sure there is nothing on there that I can't do because of my left shoulder.  Once my left shoulder is healed, I will stop looking because ignorance is bliss.

• Russian KB Swings form:  I know that my hips are supposed to generate the power for this move and that my upper body is just along for the ride.  When I got tired during the workout, I think I got my shoulders, neck, and back overly involved in the motion.  As a result, my lower back and shoulders feel really sore from this morning.  I can improve this by practicing with my kettle bells. These are light enough that I can practice with these after I give my body a day or two to recover.

I treated myself to this jump rope because I provided free TAKS tutoring today.

Travel WOD 2 and Organization Puzzle

Just finished Travel Wod 2 during my morning workout without pre-workout breakfast.  This is encouraging.  I'm trying to develop habits I can carry through the school year.  Now, if I can eliminate my pre-workout stewing and procrastinating, I think I can limit my am workout time to about 45 minutes which is manageable during the school year.

I've decided to do the Travel WOD's listed here in order so I don't have to think too hard about my home workouts.  If I can't do one as listed, I'll just modify the workout.  So handstand push-ups will be replaced with regular push-ups, etc.  I feel like this workout routine warrants a reorganization of my fitness spreadsheets.  I'm still mulling this over.  I want to figure this out soon so I have both a simple and functional way to record the workouts.

In the meantime, here's the data:

Workout: 10 push-ups, 10 sit-ups, 10 air squats x 10
Completion time: 21 min 21.82 sec
Modifications: push-ups on knees to get full range of motion

This workout was a little more manageable than the previous one because I don't feel like I was super-setting any one muscle group during the routine.  Unlike the previous one where I got to from a run to air-squats (nasty!).

Travel WOD Jitters

I'm about to do one of the travel WODs listed here in my garage:

Run 1/2 mile 50 air squats – 3 rounds for time.

I'm anxious about doing this workout because I know it's going to be painful.  I'm interpreting this anxiety as a sign that I picked the right workout.  My goal for the workout is just to FINISH (no quitting permitted) and to do all my air squats with good form.  I want to use this workout to build my anaerobic and aerobic capacity - but mainly focus on the former.  I'm racing Summer this Monday if I make it through this workout.  I want to convince my mind that my body is ready to take on Summer in a couple days.

I'm scare enough of this workout that since I made the decision an hour ago to do it, I've been procrastinating.  Here are two things I've found while procrastinating:

1.  G7 Story - Veronica Garza  : really inspiring video about how a woman overcame Lupus by changing her diet and working out at a Crossfit box in Laredo, TX.  Made me cry.

Video screenshot of Veronica doing a weighted chin-up.  Amazing!

2.  Strong is the New Skinny Shirt : Cute T-shirt.  I want to buy myself this shirt when I am strong enough to do chin-ups and pull-ups without support.

WAAAANT!

 OK, now I'm getting hungry.  I need to do this work-out now or eat and delay the workout another 2 - 3 hours.